Volleyball Headline

Junior
opposite hitter Amber McCray (Longview,
Texas) recorded a match high 22 kills as the seventh-ranked and No. 9 seed
University of Florida volleyball team advanced to the Regional Semifinal of the
NCAA Championship for the 15th time in the last 16 seasons with a
3-1 win against Arizona State (30-17, 30-27, 26-30, 30-23) on Friday evening at
the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

Florida (30-2) advances to the Gainesville Regional where the
Gators will host No. 8 seed Minnesota
on Friday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. at the O’Connell Center.

The
Gators won their 22nd consecutive match of the season and moved to
33-2 at home in NCAA play under head coach Mary Wise. Florida
out-hit ArizonaState (16-15) .310-.212, while finishing
with more kills (71-63), aces (6-5), digs (89-74) and blocks (15.0-7.0).

“It’s
taken great performances in the past to make it out of this round and tonight
was no different,” Wise said. “The biggest difference in the match is that we
had better serving and passing stats than a great serving team. Block assists
and digs are the two best indications of effort and for us to have 89 digs and
15 total blocks is a great indication of our effort.”

The
Gators reached the 30-win plateau for the 14th time in school
history and the 12th time in 16 seasons under Wise. Florida collected double
figures in blocks for the 10th time in its last 12 contests.

Sophomore
middle blocker Kelsey Bowers (Gainesville, Fla.)
broke three records and tied another during the contest after finishing with a
UF NCAA record 10 block assists and tying the Florida NCAA mark with 11 total
blocks. She also broke the Gator records for sophomore total blocks (174) and
block assists (152) in a season.

Freshman
libero Elyse Cusack (Melrose, Fla.)
recorded 21 digs to become just the second player in UF history to reach 500
digs in one season and now has 513 – the second-best single season total in
Gator history.

Florida used a 6-1 run in the opening
stages of the first game to gain control before going on to claim a 30-17 win. It
didn’t take long for the Gators to force ArizonaState
to take its first timeout. After the Sun Devils went in front 3-2, Florida responded with
five consecutive points in moving ahead 7-3. Freshman defensive specialist Alli Cecchini (Brentwood, Calif.)
provided strong serving in the stretch with Bowers and Hampton each recording a
kill as well as combining for a block in the run. ASU remained within four
points until the Gators went on a 6-1 run to move in front 16-8 and force the
Sun Devils to take their last timeout. Hampton
notched a pair of kills in the run to lead UF. Out of the break, ArizonaState recorded a kill before the Gators
picked up the next three to open up a 19-9 lead. The Sun Devils never came
closer than nine the rest of the way before the game ended with an ASU attack
error. Florida hit .421 in the game to just
.116 for the Sun Devils, while Hampton
led all players with eight kills on .368 hitting. Cusack had a game-high six
digs.

Florida came back from a late six-point deficit in out-scoring ArizonaState 10-1 to claim a 30-27 win in the
second game. The Sun Devils gained a bit of separation early on with a 3-0 run
that extended ASU’s lead to four at 10-6. Florida
responded with three-straight points on a Kristina
Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind.) kill followed by a pair of McCray
kills to come within a point at 11-10. The teams sided out until ArizonaState recorded three consecutive points
in building a 15-11 advantage entering the media timeout. The Sun Devils added
another before the Gators picked up a pair of points on two kills from Bowers
to cut the deficit to 16-13 with ASU taking its first timeout. The teams sided
out until the Sun Devils again went up by five at 22-17. The Gators then
notched the next three on an ArizonaState service error
followed by a tandem block from Bowers and McCray and a ball handling error on
the Sun Devils in forcing ASU to use its final timeout on top 22-20. ArizonaState picked up a block out of the
timeout and added a kill on the next point to push its lead back to four at
24-20 with UF then using its last timeout. The Sun Devils went up by six at
26-20 before the Gators began their miraculous run. It began with an ASU
service error before Cecchini served four straight points with Bowers and
McGinnis stuffing a pair of attacks and Bowers and McGinnis adding a kill each
as UF pulled within one at 26-25. ArizonaState picked up a kill before Hampton killed a ball
from the left side and McGinnis put down a ball on an overpass as UF tied the
game at 27-27. ASU committed a ball handling error on the next point as the
Gators took their first lead of the game before Killingsworth and Bowers
combined on a block to set up game point at 29-27. Killingsworth was able to
collect a kill on an off balance shot to end the frame. UF out-hit ASU
.268-.227 in the game with McCray tying for game-high honors with five kills. Davis had a game-high
seven digs with Cusack adding six and McGinnis chiming in with five. UF had 5.0
blocks in the game with Bowers collecting four assists.

ArizonaState built an early advantage before
fending off a late Gator rally to win game three 30-26. After Florida
raced out to a 4-1 advantage following a block from McCray, Arizona
State stormed back with eight of the next nine points to surge in front 9-5. UF
responded with the next two on a pair of kills from Bowers, but ArizonaState put the next three on the
scoreboard to move in front 12-7. The Gators eventually closed the gap to a
pair at 15-13 after an ace by Cusack, but ArizonaState
went on top by as many as eight after a 7-1 run. With the Sun Devils up 26-19,
the Gators mounted a run with five of the next six to come within three at
27-24 after a Bowers kill on an overpass. But the teams sided out the rest of
the way before the game ended with an ASU kill. ArizonaState
out-hit UF .298-.228 in the game. McCray tied for game-high honors with eight
kills on .412 hitting, with Cusack collecting a team-best six digs.

The
Gators fended off a late ArizonaState rally and captured
the final game 30-23. UF got off to a great start by tallying five of the first
six points. Killingsworth started things off with a block before a trio of ASU
errors, a McCray kill and a tandem block from Johnson and Hampton put the
Gators on top 5-1. ArizonaState gradually cut into
UF’s lead and came within a point at 11-10. The Gators responded with three
straight points on a Johnson kill followed by back-to-back kills by Hampton as Florida
went back ahead 14-10. The Sun Devils came within two at 14-12 and 15-13, but
the Gators picked up three-straight points with a kill from McGinnis bumping
UF’s advantage to five at 18-13 and forcing ASU to call its final timeout. The
Sun Devils came as close as three at 24-21, but Florida rattled off four straight points to
regain control before the match ended with an ASU service error.

The
Gainesville Regional will begin Friday, Dec. 8 with the first regional
semifinal contest slated to begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by UF’s contest at 7
p.m. The regional final will be played on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. with the
winning team moving on to the 2006 Final Four in Omaha, Neb.